Bill Cosby’s Publicist Invokes Emmett Till to Discredit Accusers

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Bill Cosby and his publicist Ebonee Benson walked through the Montgomery County Courthouse during a break in his sexual assault retrial. Ms. Benson invoked Emmett Till’s case when asked whether the dozens of women who have accused Mr. Cosby of sexual assault were lying.CreditCreditPool photo by Mark Makela

Bill Cosby’s publicist on Friday compared his sexual assault conviction to the plight of Emmett Till, the black teenager who was lynched and disfigured in Mississippi in 1955 after he was wrongfully accused of flirting with a white woman.

Mr. Cosby was convicted on Thursday of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, Andrea Constand, at his home 14 years ago. More than 50 other women have accused him of sexual abuse.

Till, by contrast, was 14 years old in 1955, when a white woman accused him of flirting and whistling at her. Four days later, a group of white men forced their way into the home where he was staying and abducted him. He was beaten, shot in the head and thrown into a river. His body was found three days later, mutilated so badly it could be identified only by the ring he was wearing.

On Friday, during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” one of Mr. Cosby’s publicists invoked Till when asked whether the dozens of women who have accused Mr. Cosby of sexual abuse were lying.

“Since when are all people honest?” the publicist, Ebonee Benson, said. “And since when are all women honest? We can take a look at Emmett Till, for example. Since when are all people honest?”

Mr. Cosby’s other publicist, Andrew Wyatt, added that “this became a public lynching.”

Till’s literal lynching was one of the most significant catalysts in the civil rights movement, and has long been taught in history classes. The Rev. Jesse Jackson has said it was the movement’s “big bang.”